Romeo and Juliet

My first introduction to Shakespeare goes like this:

I was about 4 or 5 years old, and like most children I suppose, I was very impressionable. One day, while my cousin was baby-sitting me and my sisters, she found a music box in my parent's closet. It was just a plain music box: One of those old-fashioned ones that you wind up and you can see the gears moving, with a comb-like metal piece that makes notes as the gears rotate. Only the words "A Time For Us, Romeo and Juliet" were written on the inside. As she wound it up, the sad music started, and she began to tell us the story.

A long time ago, there was a boy and a girl who loved each other, but they couldn't be together because their families were enemies. They had a plan to run away and get married, but the plan didn't work. She took a potion that made her fall asleep, and when the boy found her, he thought she had died. So he poisoned himself because he couldn't live without her. When she awoke, she found him dead, and so she shot herself in the head. And they lived happily ever after in heaven.

My cousin told me it was a true story, so that made it even more captivating. Shakespeare as told by a 9-year-old. This was my first introduction to Shakespeare, but it was my first introduction to love and death, too. That music box became my and my siblings' shrine to love. We found a rose and put it inside the box, and as it dried out, the smell became intertwined with the story. We put pictures of our parents on their wedding day inside. I even found a pretty feather once, and put it among the gifts.

This is the exact song in the music box, but it was a plain, rectangular box. I like the Boxing Match in the background. Nice touch with the wordplay of boxing and boxes. Oh wow, quit playin'.